- There are a lot of advantages to selling on Etsy,
but at a certain point in your business
you might be thinking
Should I be creating my own website?
Or how hard is it to transition my business
from Etsy to a website?
Those are very good questions
because having your own website can be a really good step
for your shop's success and growth
but I know that even the thought of transitioning your shop
from Etsy to a website can be totally overwhelming.
Right, so today we're going to talk about transitioning
to your own website in a slow and steady way
that isn't overwhelming, and I will give you simple steps
to follow if you decide you're ready to take the plunge.
Right, let's dive in.
(relaxing music)
Bonjour, my name is Deb and I am the founder of Tizzit.co,
a membership community for makers and handmade shop owners,
just like your fabulous self.
You can learn more about our community, Tizzit HQ,
via the link that you'll find below this video
but for now, let's jump straight into today's conversation,
an easy way to transition from Etsy
over to your own Website.
If you are considering starting your own website,
I'm sure you are attracted by some of the advantages
having your own website offers, right?
Jumping off the Etsy hamster wheel and gaining autonomy
and control over your own business, avoiding Etsy fees,
developing your brand and attracting loyal followers,
independence, control, these are just a few, right?
Having your own website can definitely
take your handmade business to a whole new level,
but it can also be overwhelming.
So I've developed a simple, one-step-at-a-time process
that takes the overwhelm out of starting your own website.
Now I'll be honest, this is not the way
that I necessarily would do it if I worked
directly with you, because if I worked with you,
I would be there to support you to go straightaway from Etsy
to a full-blown ecommerce website
and if you'd like to know how that could work,
I'll leave a link for you below, we have a programme for that.
But if you're on your own, and you're not super tech savvy,
and you're nervous you will get in over your head
and that you're gonna be able to do this on your own,
I want to reassure you and tell you that yes you can
And this is what this video is for,
to really break down the process into simple steps.
If you are just getting started on creating your website,
make sure you focus on the big picture.
Of course, there are an abundance of features you can have
on your website, but the point here is to not get ahead
of yourself or you will feel completely overwhelmed
and you're not gonna know what to do first.
So instead, I want you to start focusing
on the basics, right?
The best way to transition to your own website
is to do it in an organised, logical order.
Keep it simple at first.
The hardest part of building your own website
or online store is to get started.
So doing this will make the transition much more manageable.
Most of the time, building a store turns into
such a big project that the rest of the business
gets left aside.
You definitely don't want that, and that's the beauty
of the steps I've put together for you to follow, right?
They'll get you doing but not drowning.
So with this simple plan, you can work on your site
one step at a time and go back to business
in between those steps,
while still having a professional website
to refer people to.
So step one is to start with a one page website.
It's the first thing I want you to do
Building a one page website, not more just one page.
Why, because it will get you started
and motivated without taking too long.
You won't have to spend time gathering and writing content.
You won't have to come up with a complex design.
It'll be simple but effective.
It also means that even if you don't have
a full online store yet,
you'll have a domain that you can share that's yours.
You can print it on your business cards, your invoices,
share it at craft fairs, share it with retail shops
and so it's a really great place to start, right.
So this is what it could look like.
This is an example
and that would maybe be more suited to someone
that's an artist, where the personal brand is important.
So if you want to focus more on your products,
you could make the product pictures more prominent.
You have all sorts of options really.
But here on the left you can see it tells the visitor
about your business.
It showcases a few pictures of your products or your artwork
and it gives the visitor a way to contact you.
Over on the right, they will see a picture of you
and learn more about you.
They have a chance to sign up for your email list
if you already have one, visit your social media pages,
and a link to de to get them to your Etsy store.
The point that I'm trying to make here
is that this is just one page.
It doesn't even have like a navigation bar,
but it conveys all sorts of information
in one simple website.
Easy peasy, right?
You now have this beautiful one page website
for people to visit that looks really professional.
So where to start?
Now you have an idea of how simple this can be,
you're ready to get started.
First, set a date in your calendar
you want to have this done by.
Remember, you aren't creating the Taj Mahal
of websites, right?
This is something you could reasonably accomplish
in a short period of time.
Think Weekend project and next, you wanna decide
on the platform that you're gonna use to build your site.
Don't overthink it, Shopify, WooCommerce, Squarespace,
all great options.
The three of them will most likely have
all the features you'll ever need,
so go with a platform you feel most comfortable with.
They all have tutorials and templates to help you
get started too,
so don't feel not being able to code and design,
you're not going to need to.
Your one-pager should include an about section
to introduce your store and products,
a few pictures of your products, where to find the products.
You can share your Etsy link here, your craft fair
and markets dates and shops that you may be selling in
if you sell at wholesale.
A mini bio, and a picture of you to introduce yourself,
the maker, a contact form,
and links to your social media accounts, right?
Once you have these ready,
you're ready to start building your one page site.
Once you're done building your page,
feel free to continue with step two or leave it for now
and come back to it whenever you have time.
Mission accomplished, you now have a standalone website
for your handmade business.
Now, step two, once you have built your one page website,
the next thing you want to build is an email list.
Why, because it's the most important thing
you could ever want for your business.
It is a debt mining factor,
in turning your side hustle into a profitable shop.
Again, this is a small step which makes it achievable.
So no excuses, right?
So where do we start?
The two email platforms I recommend Klaviyo and Mailerlite.
Both are great choices.
Once you decide, sign up with the email provider you choose
and either signup form to your site.
Most providers, and definitely Mailerlite
and Klaviyo are have tutorials to help you do that
and typically all this requires is for you to embed
a little form onto this one page site of yours
so people can sign up for your newsletter, right
and you'll just need to copy
and paste a little tiny bit of code onto your website.
Don't panic, it's really simple, really easy.
You definitely don't need to be a coder to do that
and then you will have a way to capture email signups
onto your websites when that's done.
So bam, this step will be done
and I have a video actually about email marketing
for your handmade shop that includes a free email series
to turn your visitors into buyers that I will leave a link
for down below if you wanna check that out.
Now, step three, it's time to turn
your simple one page website into a full website.
Now, don't panic, I said website, not store.
Once again, this is just a small step towards your end goal
rather than a big, scary, overwhelming move.
So maybe the next month after you set up
your email marketing system or a month after that,
whenever you have time and you feel like you want to tackle
that project further, you start building more pages.
You have your one page with just enough on it,
and now you're going to add an about page.
You're going to add a contact page,
you're going to maybe add a blog,
all those small pages that start to fill out your website.
So what could this include?
It could be simple pages that give your website visitors
more information about you and your business
and encourage them to stay on your website a bit longer.
So for example, you can add an about page.
So turn your about paragraph from step one
into a page of its own, a contact page.
Turn your contact form into a page of its own, a blog.
Now's a great time to start a blog page, a media kit page,
a wholesale page if you sell wholesale to retailers
and any other page really
that you might need for your business.
So for example, if you sell custom orders,
you might have a page that explains the process
and a way to contact you for a custom order.
Each business is different,
so think about what is important for yours.
Take time to think strategically about the pages you need
and decide what content and elements will be on these pages.
Taking the time to think this through away from the computer
rather than rushing into creating the pages
will save you time, I promise, so start on paper.
What pages do I need?
What information needs to be on those pages?
Now, when you're ready to create those pages,
do it one at a time.
You've already built a one page website
so you know how to build a page.
So you're essentially just doing this a few more times,
for however many pages you wanna add.
So in terms of learning curve,
you're not gonna have to learn anything more
than what you had to learn for step one.
So it should be a fairly easy process that's not going to,
again, require an enormous amount of time at once.
So again, think weekend projects and tackle that step.
Step four, we are almost here.
Once you finish step three, congratulation,
you have a full website to showcase your talents
and engage with potential customers.
They can see some pictures of your products.
All your pages are built.
You have a mailing list set up
and a link to your Etsy store, great work.
At this point, your website structure
is starting to look really good,
but there's still one last step,
adding an actual e-commerce functionality to your site
so people can buy your products on your website
rather than taking them to Etsy.
So now you'll start adding your products,
your product descriptions, prices, categories
and then linking all that to your payment processor
and obviously that's going to take a bit of work.
But remember, you already have your Etsy shop,
meaning you already have your pictures, your descriptions,
your prices and all of that.
Plus you've played with your website enough by now
that you probably feel comfortable using the backend of it,
so you're ready to rock and roll.
So as you can see by each of the steps
we've talked about today, you don't have to take an all
or nothing approach to creating your website
and I hope that you feel more confident now
that you can accomplish this if it's your goal.
By breaking down the process
of launching your own online store,
you have more time to put each step in place
and ultimately it's much less overwhelming.
You don't need a full-blown e-commerce store
from the get-go.
You don't need to spend hours today or tomorrow
lost in the Google results vortex.
Consider your options, start with a one page website
then build upon it slowly but surely.
Remember, starting is the hardest part
and done is better than perfect.
If you're feeling pretty decided
that you want to move ahead and start your own website,
you will definitely want to download
this free one page website planner that I made for you
to go with this video that will really help you get started.
So make sure that you download, the link is below.
And if you're on the fence and you don't know
whether you wanna start your website or stay on Etsy,
you want to watch the video that's showing on screen
right now.
It's going to give you four scenarios to help you decide
if it's time to take the plunge
and transition to your own website or maybe not quite yet.
And finally, if you'd prefer to work with me and my team,
check out the link below.
We have a programme that helps you go from Etsy
onto your own website.
The process is a bit different
and what I walk you through in the video,
because this is not something that you would do alone,
this is something that we would teach you
and we have a different process in that case
'cause we're really here supporting you
through that process, so we can go a little faster.
But if that's something that you'd be interested in,
make sure they check the link below
and until next time, thanks for watching, au revoir.